Goodbye, Catholics

In mid-1971, a short book called Changing Sources of Power: American Politics in the 1970s argued that the Democratic Party should loosen its historic ties with Catholics. The book acknowledged that “the Catholic vote” had consistently supported Democratic presidential candidates since the 1930s. Even so, it contended, the “party’s political self-interest” lay in appealing to other constituencies.

“The net effect of these groups...

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